Tag: 1930s

The Yellow Curse

Grady Hendrix has written a fascinating piece about Chinese-American life and Chinatowns in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries and a story he’s written about it. “If you were an average Chinese living in New York’s Chinatown at the turn of the century, your life sucked. You […]

RIP, Bob Anderson

Olympic fencer, sword master, stunt choreographer, performer and actor, Bob Anderson has died. Anderson performed Darth Vader’s lightsaber battles in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Her served as sword master, fight coordinator and stunt performer in films such as 1953’s The Master of Ballantrae […]

RIP, Joe Simon

Comics writer and artist Joe Simon has died. Simon created Captain America with Jack Kirby and, according to Michael Cavna at Comic Riffs blog, “Virtuoso though he was, his most iconic image from 80 years in the industry will remain the introduction of Captain America socking Hitler in […]

High Fantasy for Young Adults

At The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik writes about The Lord of the Rings and its influence on young adult fantasy, how Tolkien’s fusing of the epic and the familiarly domestic brought us Eragon and Twilight. “Kids go to fantasy not for escape but for organization, and a little […]

RIP, Ken Russell

Filmmaker Ken Russell has died at the age of 84. The extremely prolific Russell’s films include:  Tommy; The Harry Palmer film, Billion Dollar Brain; Women in Love; The Music Lovers;  The Devils; Altered States; Crimes of Passion; and Lair of the White Worm.  The Guardian has an obituary […]

Anne McCaffrey

R.I.P, Anne McCaffrey (lots of great tributes online today: at Whatever, Io9, and Tor among them). Update: everyone seems to be using those fantastic Michael Whelan covers, but McCaffrey had her share of not-so-wonderful covers.